Video 5:47
40th birthday

Kate EvansUpdated
Wed May 25 18:58:37 EST 2011

It is 40 years since Queen Elizabeth gave Canberra a special musical gift, the National Carillon.

Transcript

CATHERINE GARRETT, PRESENTER: Its 40 years since the Queen of England gave Canberra a gift. Then bizarrely accepted it as Queen of Australia. It's one of Canberra's most treasured landmarks providing visual and audio treats. Stateline went up into the carillon to meet one of the unseen maestros who send those delicate chimes out across the lake.

LYN FULLER, CARILLONIST: It's very challenging to play. When I first came to learn this instrument, I thought you just donged a bell. And nothing could be further from the truth.

SEONA DOHERTY, NATIONAL CAPITAL AUTHORITY: There is only two carillons in Australia one here in Canberra and one in Sydney. So why Canberra actually ended up with a carillon is an interesting story. In 1963, the British Government offered a gift of bells to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the national capital. An Australian firm won the international competition to design the tower and in 1970 the Queen opened the National Carillon.

It was apparently a day very much like today, very cold westerly wind and very cold in the shadows. The 25,000 people who came to see the Queen open the carillon had a wonderful occasion but according to the Canberra Times the 100 invited VIP guests who were sitting in the shade didn't have quite as nice a time.

John Gorton was the Prime Minister at the time and he asked the Queen as the Queen of Australia to accept the gift that she as Queen of Britain had given to Australia!

We here at the national capital are very lucky we have 55 bells which makes it quite large by international standards.

And those bells are connected to a clavier. It's a keyboard like instrument with wooden battons. The battons are connected by wires to the clappers insife the bells.

It's the clappers that move, not the bells.

The 55 bells range from a very small seven kilos to an enormous six tonne. The six tonne bellm the bourbon bell, is the bell that strikes the hour when you listen to the Westminster chimes and it's also 2.2 metres in diameter.

When you hear the Westminster chimes strike the hour and then every 15 minutes, that is mechanical, there is not someone playing that. But when you hear a recital which we have twice a week, that is a person playing that. Sometimes you may also be lucky enough to hear one of the carillonists practising as well.

LYN FULLER: I started in 1994 and spent a year, I suppose, busily practising away.

There are seven of us, not a lot of people really. I suppose Australia would have around 16 carillonists altogether but then there's only two instruments to play. I suppose you could say it's a bit of an ego booster because it's one of the world's largest instruments and people have to listen to you. You seem to be as aware of people as much in here as you would be if you were on the stage or doing chamber concert and of course they hear it a little differently to what we hear in here.

And I remember the fellow that used to cleaned the clavier room, he would come up and he would say "Outside mwah!" and then he would say in here "Eergh". So that explains really well that there is a little bit of difference between what I'm hearing and what you're hearing.

But the other fascinating thing is that you can make different sounds with each bell in that it plays beautifully softly, and so you have to have the baton down really low to be able to do that, or it bringing very robustly and you can...

That sort of thing. This is the tiniest bell and it's very light to play. And the amazing thing is you can still hear it out over the lake. Now this bell here, which is the biggest one up there, is quite heavy.

And you'll notice that it sounds forever and ever so you have to take that into consideration when you're writing for the instrument.

Once you play a note, it's out there. Too bad if it's wrong. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't stop the note like you can on any other instrument.

SEONA DOHERTY: The gift itself was that symbolise to symbolise the strong links between Britain and Australia. But over the 40 years I believe that symbolism has changed slightly. Certainly when I look at the tower now it automatically strikes me as a symbol of Canberra, it's a symbol of our modern, dynamic unique city, the bells themselves will last hundreds and hundreds of years. We have a beautiful tower that, again, will last hundreds of years and continue to be a symbol of us as a national capital.

CATHERINE GARRETT: Kate Evans produced that story. And if you happened to hear Mary Had A Little Lamb peeling out across the lake during the week, that was Kate!

The carillon's 40th anniversary is being celebrated all this month, including an open day on the 26th.